Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on a convergence of the eco-tourism/extraction nexus by investigating the production and promotion of “diamond tourism” in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Diamond tourism attempts to mediate the contradiction of claims to geological purity on landscapes of industrial ruin.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on a convergence of the eco-tourism/extraction nexus by investigating the production and promotion of "diamond tourism" in the Northwest Territories, Canada. With three global mining firms operating in the region as of 2008, the Territorial government scrambled to find ways for mining activities to benefit local populations. With low royalty regimes generating limited revenues, 'diamond tourism' promised to diversify the local economy and multiply benefits of mining. Previous attempts to develop local tourism focused on natural phenomenon like aurora borealis, unspoiled wilderness and traditional Aboriginal culture. These efforts largely failed as the materiality of northern resource extraction challenges tourism's narratives of natural and cultural 'purity'. On the outskirts of the capital city, three abandoned gold mines sit quarantined behind chain link fences and most Aboriginal people in the area have been directly involved with industry as labour for over three generations.

This paper explores how "diamond tourism" attempts to mediate the contradiction of claims to purity on landscapes of industrial ruin. Marketed as "pure ice", Canadian diamonds draw on images of the natural to make ethical claims about the stones' production. Diamond tourism attempts to extend and integrate the manufactured purity of stones with that of the natural landscape. As a result, narratives of local culture and history have been reframed in public spaces (museums, street signs) as to emphasize and celebrate the region's long record of resource extraction; all of which stands in paradoxical relation to eco-tourist desires.